Ryan Preece remained relatively guarded when asked about a penalty issued by NASCAR last week, but he made it clear that he is excited about the opportunity to go present his case as part of the appeals process.
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"Honestly, a bit surprised, but you know, I'm thankful that NASCAR has an appeals process so that I feel like I can be heard and let that process play itself out," Preece said on Saturday when asked about the penalty taking away 25 points and $50,000.
This particular penalty came from an incident at Texas Motor Speedway. Ty Gibbs wrecked on Lap 101, and it appeared that he had some help from Preece.This followed an earlier rant over the radio by the RFK Racing driver.
"What a (expletive) idiot that kid is," Preece said about Gibbs after stage 1 at Texas. "He's so lucky his car is so (expletive) fast. ...All right, when I get to that 54, I'm done with him. (Expletive) idiot.
"It's just, that car is so fast, it (expletive) pisses me off. Stupid. ...I'm going to vent for 15 seconds. I can't stand when idiots like him have fast race cars that they can do stupid (expletive) and get away with it. End of rant."
Preece later told reporters at the track and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio later in the week that he could have cut Gibbs a break. He just did not. He did not talk to Gibbs about this incident, and he will not do so until after the appeals process.
Days after the crash, Preece learned that he had received a penalty from the sanctioning body. It just took some time for him to receive the message.
"I was on my mower, mowing my lawn at about 4:30 in a not very great signaled area," he said. "So I just kind of saw it, a missed call. So when I made the call back, I found out I had a penalty. So at that point, I'm thankful for RFK (Racing).
"I'm thankful for Chip (Bowers, president). I'm thankful for everybody there for the support. Thankful for having Chris (Buescher) and Brad (Keselowski) as teammates for being great teammates like they are.
"And I'm excited to go through the appeals process. Because like I said, at least I feel like I can go through it and share my side."
Preece does not yet know how this appeals process will go. He doesn't know if he will get his points back, or if the independent panel will uphold NASCAR's original punishment.
What he does know, however, is that he is not changing his approach to his day job even after receiving the call from NASCAR.
"You know, at the beginning of the season, we were talked about being ourselves," he said. "So I'm not going to change being myself. But what I can say is I'm excited for the appeals process, and I look forward to going through that."
